Captain, coach not at fault: Ishant

Kolkata Knight Riders pacer Ishant Sharma today refused to blame captain Brendon McCullum or coach John Buchanan for their IPL debacle and said the fact was that the team failed to deliver as a unit.

Knight Riders suffered the humiliation of losing eight matches in a row under the leadership of McCullum, who succeeded Sourav Ganguly, and celebrated former Australia coach Buchanan but Ishant said it would have met the same fate under anyone.

"Whoever would have been our captain and coach but the fact was that we failed to deliver as a team during the tournament. The captain is as good as his team," he told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.

Asked to compare Ganguly and McCullum, the 20-year-old said "They are different types of captain and both have different ways of handling the pressure."

On the personal front, Ishant admitted IPL-II was the most difficult phase of his career.

"I have never seen my side losing so many matches at a stretch like what happened in the IPL in South Africa. It was certainly the toughest phase of my cricket career so far.

Since the day I started playing cricket, I have never seen my side losing so many close matches for such a long period. But I think, it was a learning experience for the whole team as well," the lanky bowler said.

However, the Delhi-ite is now ready shrug off the IPL's hangover before going to the World T20 Championship in England and vehemently dismissed speculation that the 37-day cash-awash event had tired the Indian players. "I don't think that there will be fatigue factor during the World Cup. We are professional cricketers and prepared to play that much cricket. We keep doing trainings and also look after ourselves," the 20-year-old cricketer said on the sidelines of a promotional event here.

"The T20 cricket is all about momentum. If we continue with the right momentum like the team did last time, India can well defend the title," Ishant exuded confidence.

"The couple of practice matches before the main event are going to be crucial from that point of view as they will give us the idea about the condition in England," he added.